Skip to main content

San Francisco proceeds with e-cigarette sales ban after decisive vote

San Francisco proceeds with e-cigarette sales ban after decisive vote

/

More than 80 percent voted against Proposition C

Share this story

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

San Francisco will ban the sale of e-cigarettes entirely starting in 2020, after the resounding defeat of a proposition designed to thwart the restrictions. The ballot measure was the last hurdle for the proposed ban, which was passed into law in June.

Early results from the city’s Department of Elections show that slightly more than 80 percent of voters opposed Proposition C, which would have overturned the ban and paved the way for looser regulations. Initially, Proposition C was heavily supported by Juul Labs, which poured an estimated $18 million into promoting the measure. Efforts to defeat the proposition were spearheaded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spent about $6.6 million to oppose the proposition.

Juul abruptly ceased support for Proposition C in September, around the same time that the company replaced its CEO and stopped advertising its products in the United States. Juul has been under fire recently amid a continued rise in underage vaping, an outbreak of injuries associated with using THC products in e-cigarettes, and a lawsuit made by a former executive alleging that Juul shipped contaminated pods.

The San Francisco ban is one of the more comprehensive in the country. Other jurisdictions have proposed bans on sales of flavored e-cigarette products, but San Francisco’s prohibits sales of all products not approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration. So far, no e-cigarette products have gotten that approval.